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April 12, 2013

Defence Ministry asks Army to avoid single-vendor tender for missiles

Stung by scams in import of military hardware, the Defence
Ministry has asked the Army to avoid a single-vendor tender for
procuring anti-tank guided missiles from Israel and look for other sources also who can offer the weapon system.

During the last meeting of Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister
A K Antony, the Army had proposed to buy the Spike anti-tank guided
missiles from Israel but it was deferred as the Ministry wanted the Army
to find out if other vendors were providing the system and they could
also be issued the tender, sources said here.

The Ministry,
which is looking to enhance transparency in weapon procurement through
the import route, is now not inclined much towards the single-vendor
tenders and wants a fair competition between arms suppliers for any
acquisition, they said.

The tri-services Integrated Defence
Staff Headquarters has been asked to do a 'Technology Scan' for finding
out if there are other sources who can offer their products for the
project.

The procurement of the ATGMs was expected to cost over
Rs 5,000 crore for procuring ATGMs for more than 350 Infantry
battalions of the Indian Army.

The Army has been looking at procuring these systems to do away with the shortfall of such weaponry in its inventory.

The shortage of anti-tank weapons was also mentioned in the letter
written by former Army Chief Gen V K Singh in his top secret letter to
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India was also interested in evaluating the American Javelin missile
system for the purpose but the complex defence sales procedures of the
US over the conduct of trials and Transfer of Technology did not allow
the Army to test it out.

Under the project, India wants the vendors to transfer the technology of their systems to the Bharat Dynamics Limited for their mass production in India